On October 6, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco announced the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) to handle criminal misuses of cryptocurrency. According to the press release, NCET will focus specifically on crimes committed in virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money launderers. The team’s additional duties will include
On October 14, the Fifth Circuit issued a one paragraph order to extend a stay on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) payday lending regulations currently challenged by the Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. and the Consumer Service Alliance of Texas. The stay will allow small dollar lenders to postpone the June 2022 compliance
On October 5, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 497, legislation that restricts the types of prepaid accounts that can be used to receive certain government assistance payments. According to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLA), an advocacy organization that sponsored the legislation, the now-enacted law will “close a loophole that allows nonbank prepaid card
On September 13, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report to Congress that highlights the agency’s recent efforts to protect Americans’ privacy, announces the agency’s priorities for future data security and privacy protection efforts, and urges Congress to allocate more resources to the agency so it can expand its data security and privacy protection
On October 4, California passed a bill requiring a money transmitter to display a toll-free telephone number on its website through which a customer may contact the licensee for customer service issues and receive live customer assistance. The telephone number must be operative at least 10 hours per day, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.
On September 30, the Senate confirmed Rohit Chopra as the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Chopra’s confirmation marks the beginning of his second stint with the CFPB — Chopra served as the CFPB assistant director between 2010 and June 2015, and had overlapping duties as the student loan ombudsman between October
On September 20, nine Democratic senators wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), requesting that it create new rules to protect consumers’ personal data and privacy.
The senators played on FTC Chair Lina Khan’s aversion to Big Tech and aggressive antitrust agenda, which we discussed in a prior post, by stating that
On September 9, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) released the Model Transmission Modernization Act (model law) in efforts to replace the 50 state-specific money transmitter laws with a nationwide standard. Unless the states adopt the model law, no change will occur to any existing state money transmission laws.
If enacted by the states,
On September 13, President Biden announced his intent to nominate privacy advocate Alvaro Bedoya to serve as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If confirmed, Bedoya will take the seat currently held by Rohit Chopra, who President Biden has nominated as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), as we
On July 29, the BBB National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) issued revised guidelines for ads directed to children.
CARU helps companies comply with laws and guidelines that protect children from deceptive or inappropriate advertising and ensure that, in an online environment, children’s data is collected and handled responsibly. When advertising or data collection